Urgent Care vs Emergency Room - Urgent Care Explained

Alternative to that persistent cough

Urgent care centers, or UCCs, offer medical services for patients seeking treatment for non-emergency symptoms and injuries. After hours walk-in clinics, minute clinics, quick care clinics, minor emergency centers, and minor care clinics are less common terms for UCCs. Same with the slang term, “docs in a box.”

UCCs are recommended for those in need of an immediate appointment with their doctor but either can’t get one or don’t want one. While some UCCs belong to healthcare groups like medical clinics and hospitals, many are independent.

The following are a some of the UCCs in the US:

American Family Care (AFC)

CareNow

CareSpot

CityMD

Concentra

Fast Med

GoHealth

MedPost

NextCare

Patient First

U.S. Healthworks

The first urgent care centers opened in the US back in the Seventies. Usage was slow at first as patients sought most of their immediate health care through their doctor and Emergency Rooms / Emergency Departments (ED).

Several factors led to a surge in usage in recent years. People found UCCs increasingly more convenient as even regular appointments with doctors could be weeks – to even months – away. EDs had become too expensive in both wait time and fees. Finally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a UCC was one of the few places available to readily obtain non-emergency tests and treatments. According to the industry Urgent Care Association (UCA), UCC patient volume rose a staggering 60 percent since 2019.

Emergency Room vs Urgent Care

Five major differences separate UCCs from the ED.

Open Urgent Cares Open

Urgent care centers open their doors at 8 AM or earlier and close around 7 PM during the week, and close around 5 PM on weekends. This is longer than doctor’s regular office hours though shorter than Emergency Departments, which are generally open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Many UCCs have holiday hours. This makes it easy for patients to simply walk in to seek treatment or to get an appointment.

Open for Business for Most People

UCCs are not required by law to treat, stabilize, or even treat patients unable to pay their fees. Nor are they obliged to accept governmental funds like Medicaid. Many centers are not found in rural areas or places with high concentrations of low-income patients.

Emergency Departments, on the other hand, are required to see most patients regardless of ability to pay (or not).

Cost Containment

Urgent care centers typically charge less for services than the Emergency Department. The average visit, for example, may cost $120-150. This doesn’t include additional services like needed X-rays, injections, medications, etc. They contain costs because they only offer the care needed at the time.

It’s different in the Emergency Department. Their services, on average, cost ten times more than visits to an UCC. They have been built, equipped, and staffed to deal with life-threatening medical issues, and their costs have been adjusted to reflect that level of medical care. Average price for a visit at the ER, for example, is around $1,300. This does not include additional services like use of ambulances. That can easily add $400 alone, if not more.

Staffing the Urgent Care

Urgent care clinics are primarily manned by a physician assistant (PA), nurse practitioner (NP), and a nurse. They are found on-site to examine patients with – maybe – an MD available off-site to sign off their work. Others may have the doctor on-site occasionally as well.

In contrast, typical EDs are staffed by on-site highly skilled emergency medicine doctors, specialists, PA, NP, RNs, etc.

Services Provided at Urgent Care

As previously mentioned, urgent care is designed to treat non-emergency yet time-sensitive conditions. A sampling includes:

Allergies (non-life-threatening)

Asthma (mild)

Burns

Cold or flu

Cuts (minor)

Dehydration

Diarrhea

Insect bites and stings

Sprains

strep throat

Urinary tract infection (UTI)

Vomiting

Some urgent care may be allowed to treat simple broken bones and fractures.

Unsurprisingly, Emergency Departments handle major emergencies, especially life-threatening ones. Patients should go to the ED if they’re having:

Chest pain or shortness of breath

Complicated breaks and fractures (open or compound fracture)

Confusion

Difficulty breathing

Multiple injuries

Non-stop bleeding

Severe allergic reaction

Severe dizziness

Severe headache

Severe vomiting

Stroke

Unconsciousness

Vaginal bleeding or abdominal pain while pregnant

What to Look for in a Medical Computer for Urgent Care

TThe following features for any medical computers to be used in UCC:

Patient Kiosks

Unlike medical offices, urgent care centers are not intended to be a patient’s regular point of care. A primary doctor is not usually assigned to patients, for example.

Patient information is still important for purposes like billing. While staff can take down the information manually, clinics can also be equipped with patient kiosks to streamline the work. These devices, which can be free-standing or mounted on the wall, guide patients to enter all necessary information into the built-in medical box PC via touchscreen or keyboard. From there it goes to the clinic’s electronic medical record (EMR) system. Clinic staff and medical personnel can then review the results at the patient’s turn to provide proper treatment.

Medical Tablets

Patients can also input their information via a medical tablet. Besides the portability and ease of use, it also offers:

Fanless Design / IP65 - The tablets will be handled daily by patients. Many are sick and possibly infectious. Because of this, the tablets should be periodically cleaned with disinfectants and cleaners to keep the equipment as germ-free as possible,

Medical tablets with fanless design keep cool without drawing in air. This prevents the harsh cleaning liquids from entering and disrupting the delicate interior. Tablets rated IP65 are sealed so thoroughly that staff can directly spray on them without affecting the screen or housing.

HIPAA compliance - the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, protects patient records. Violations, depending on severity, can cost urgent care clinics and EDs thousands of dollars in penalties. Digital identification software Imprivata, RFID readers, and similar security features can make sure those records are kept confidential.

Closing Thoughts

Urgent care centers form an important part in healthcare clinics. They treat patients with non-emergency medical needs who need to be seen quickly but do not need the services of an emergency department.

Contact an expert at Cybernet if you’re interested in learning which medical computers would fit best for the urgent care clinic use from features to systems.